It’s been quite a ride here. I grew up here when the US was at the bottom of the world rankings for education and Florida was 49th in the nation, the absolute nadir of public education - I literally had no teacher for half of sixth grade, and in elementary we had one science teacher for the whole school so got science only once a week. I really felt like it was being in jail, they didn’t teach much. Did eventually get an education in college, and read a lot growing up, outside of school.

It was the Republicans who broke it, with their Back to Basics nonsense but the Republicans who fixed it in my county, by putting in school choice & magnet schools, some of my kids went to an environmental education charter, some to IB, one to a performing arts magnet, there were a variety of schools to choose from and most all the charters nonprofit collectives not for profit outfits. My kids got great K-12 education, a few years homeschooled, 4 years private for one of them, but the first 3 out were overprepared for college, they found college easy. All had input into what high schools they wanted to apply to, got to feel like they were participating not in jail. Now the youngest is a junior in high school and I swear to God they are trying so hard to break it back to what my schooling was like. Throwing away all the progress allegedly because they are afraid kids will encounter challenging ideas and come to conclusions that don’t fit the parents’ religious beliefs or something? Yes my older ones read challenging books, Beloved, Brodek, hard to read and important books.

I don’t understand these parents at all. I think if you put kids in school you agree to the curriculum. Stand back and let the teachers work. If you don’t want to do that then find a different school or homeschool. Trying to change the school to fit your kid is wrong, especially here where there are other options.

IF there was not school choice, like back when I was in school, sure, I would advocate for my kid inside the school but not by trying to pull all the other kids down to some lowest common denominator. Only by working to get accommodation for ability or disability, or if they had a bully teacher maybe see if they could be in a different class.

Sorry, long rant but yes it’s about controlling other people not their own kids, it has to be. They got all the sort of free market school choice and now are mad because most of it didn’t turn out to be Christian academies where the sleeves and hemlines are long and all creativity suppressed. Because almost nobody wants that for their kids.